Buy-in isn’t really that complicated, it comes from an alignment of mutual goals and mutual benefit that encourages a willingness to put forth effort. But as with many things, the “devil is in the details.” After all, that alignment isn’t always obvious to you or others. Luckily, there is a hack to buy-in that while not always easy or without effort, at least puts your effort in a place that gets you a benefit. If you want more buy-in:

Involve employees in the process

Most leaders make the mistake of thinking buy-in leads to ownership, but in fact, the reverse is more often the case. When your team has had a hand in creating something, coming up with an idea, stewarding it into reality, or even just having their thoughts and ideas heard, they take OWNERSHIP. Their identity gets attached to the project because some part of them is now involved. The more involved your team is, the more buy-in you’ll see.

Bring them into the planning process at the beginning

Have them run a meeting

Ask them what they think should be done

How something could be made to work better

Where they see potential problems

What’s important to them to see done

Give people small aspects/areas for them to own, train, and help with

Ask for volunteers to take on larger roles

None of these things are quick and easy for you, they all take more time than just doing it yourself in most cases … in the short-term. But when you look at the long-term benefit of getting better buy-in, you’ll see that almost each one of the above ideas MORE than pays for the extra time in quicker delivery of the benefit.

Try it out, I know it’ll work for you.

ABOUT

One of the most popular thought leaders in management and leadership. Cameron is a real world manager offering advice from his 20+ years of management experience to over 1,000,000 subscribers to his blog and social media channels. His background encompasses Fortune 500 Companies, small companies and government agencies. Cameron writes to help front-line managers and supervisors excel and build teams that drive results. Cameron currently resides in Las Vegas, NV with his wife and three children.